


King of the Monsters

by rarmaster



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, reimagining of the asgore battle (an extremely pacifist take), spoilers for neutral/pacifist route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-26
Updated: 2015-09-26
Packaged: 2018-04-23 12:07:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4876195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rarmaster/pseuds/rarmaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, sparing is just telling someone you don't want to fight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	King of the Monsters

The gardening knife you picked up feels sticky in your hands. You have no idea how to use it. Asgore looms above you, face hidden by his helmet. You wonder if he has a lump in his throat too.

It’s your turn. You swallow hard. Think of Undyne. How hard she’d tell you to take your swing, how passionate she’d be about it—but then you remember how fond she is of Asgore. Her promise that if you hurt him she’d cross the barrier just to kick your butt. _“What are friends for?”_ she said. It doesn’t make you feel any better now. All confidence in the swing of your blade is gone.

You hit Asgore. It probably didn’t even scratch his armor. Tears well up in your eyes.

Asgore raises his trident to attack.

“P- please…” you whimper. _I don’t want to fight._

You think you hear him say he’s sorry.

You try to dodge the trident, but it’s too quick. You hurt all over. You think about pulling out some of the food you brought with you, but what’s the point of it? You don’t really want to win. You just want to go home…

“Please…” you try again. Tears pour down your cheeks. The air feels stuffy, the knife you hold heavy, _wrong._ “I don’t want to fight you…”

Asgore says nothing. You think it must be easier on him, that way, not to engage. He strikes again, and you stumble to your knees. The knife falls out of your hands, and it’s the only relief you feel right now. They were all right about you. You never stood a chance against Asgore.

“I- I just want to go _home,”_ you cry. The words are thick in your throat. The tears hot in your eyes. You hardly remember home anymore. You’ve been down here so long. All you can remember when you think of home is this warmth, in your chest, and that makes you think of your friends. Undyne’s smile. Alphys’s texts. Payprus’s horrible spaghetti. Sans…

_“You’ve got all you could want down here. You’ve got food. You’ve got drink. You’ve got friends.”_

His words ring loud in your ears. You think you hear Asgore grunt—he must be raising his trident again, ready to deal the final blow.

“WAIT!” you shout.

Stillness fills the room. There’s a tightness in your chest as you make yourself look up at Asgore. He’s lowering his trident. Sad eyes gleam from behind his helmet. You gulp down air to fill your lungs.

“Alphys- Alphys told me what I had to do,” you say, coughing out the words. You look up at Asgore pleadingly. “And I can’t do it. I- I can’t take your SOUL. I don’t- I don’t want to…” It’s hard to see him through your tears. “Let me go back,” you sob. “Let me go back to my friends. I- I’ll live here underground with the rest of you, and I won’t hurt anyone, I- I just— I JUST WANT TO SEE MY FRIENDS AGAIN!! PLEASE!! I DON’T WANT TO FIGHT YOU!!”

You squeeze your eyes shut, your head falling, and you scrub the tears away from your face. You aren’t sure if that worked. Why would it? A frantic hope burns in your belly, because what else do you have to hold on to? If that didn’t work… If Asgore wouldn’t listen—

Asgore doesn’t strike, though, which a part of you was sure he would while you were defenseless. Instead, there’s a thud, like of something heavy and metal-y hitting the floor. Then there is a pair of arms around your shoulders. The realization of what’s happening knocks the air out of your lungs.

“I don’t want to fight you, either,” Asgore says, in his deep and rumbly voice. It isn’t scary at all. In fact, it’s comforting. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, I was only fighting because I made my people a promise… But, this is not the way to do it. I see now. My wife was right.” He lets go of you and pulls back. He’s kneeling on the ground before you, looking at you with a patient smile that reminds you of Toriel. He’s discarded his helmet. “I am so sorry for all the pain I caused you. Can… can you forgive me?”

You nod easily. Of course you can. He seems like such a nice guy…

“Can… can _you_ forgive _me?”_ you ask. “I- I…”

Asgore laughs, a hearty thing. “What? This!” He pats his side, where you’d hit him. “Hardly a scratch! What about you?” His eyes immediately fill with worry. “I’m not too good at healing, but—”

“It’s okay,” you tell him, and you slide your backpack off your back. “I- I brought…” Your hand closes around that slice of butterscotch pie, which you’d carefully wrapped with napkins all that time ago, before leaving Toriel’s. You’d hung onto it, because it reminded you of her, and you couldn’t bear to part with it. Now seems like a good time to eat it, though. Homesickness is thick in your belly, and somehow, Toriel’s all you can think of when you think of home.

The king’s eyes light up when he sees it.

“Is that… butterscotch pie?”

You nod, and even though he has not asked you to yet, you break it in half. Or, as well as you can break a slice of pie in half, anyway. You take the smaller piece, handing him the larger one, since it had the crust, and you don’t like crust.

“Thank you!” Asgore seems surprised, but he does not refuse. “Toriel used to bake it all the time. It’s one of the things I miss the most… Besides her, anyway. Mm!” He lets out a note of surprise after taking a bite. “It tastes almost as good as hers!”

A smile plays on your lips. “Well… maybe that’s because she made it for me.”

Asgore coughs and hastily wipes crumbs out of his beard. “She- she did!?”

You nod. “She was the one who saved me, back at the ruins.” The pie tastes as good as it had smelled when Toriel first baked it, even if it is cold and a little hard by now. You begin to think you understand who the queen is, but you don’t say anything to Asgore. There’s something more important to say.

“Thank you… for sparing me…”

Asgore’s big eyes brim with tears, though he does not cry. He just smiles.

“You are most certainly welcome. And, I am sure you have plenty of friends down here to stay with, but… if you would like… you could stay here with me…? Maybe Tori will come back, now, when I tell her I’ve given up on this mess. And- and then we could be… a family!?”

It’s funny, to think when Toriel asked you these same words, you said no. Now, though, your heart brims with joy. You nod and throw your arms around Asgore, hugging him tightly.

You tell him, yes, you’d like that very much.

**Author's Note:**

> Whether or not things get Bad from here is up to you, I didn't want to write the full Neutral/Pacifist ending, and you could probably take it from here and twist it into the True Pacifist ending if you'd like (or into an AU where oh this is literally just, where the game ends, I mean, whatever).


End file.
